Episode 164 - UK Conference

Welcome

00:00:22Melissa Erbacher: Episode 164 of the parkrun adventurers is here. And I'm here and I'm so excited to be back. It's been ridiculously long time since I got to do a podcast. And this, of course, is all due to the wonderful substitution of myself with Lyndell Murray, who just did an incredibly stellar job. So stellar, in fact, that we decided we don't need Scotty anymore. It's just going to be the Lyndell and Mel show. Lyndell, are you here? I'm here, Mel. Welcome back. Thank you so much. Thank you for doing such a great job while I was off. Literally, you carried the show. I mean, let's be realistic here. Scotty... Scotty his contribution paled in comparison which is why we decided to keep you and kick him off you know he always made these jokes about the fact that he wasn't ready for me to come back he's the boss of me blah blah blah well you know what we've just kicked him off and who's the boss now Mel exactly little did he know that you were a plant that we had put you in to kick him out

00:01:39Lyndell Murray: All right. Well, I'm not sure how I feel about kicking people. But look, I have really loved my time on the podcast and it's a pleasure to be back with you today, Mel.

00:01:53Melissa Erbacher: Awesome. Well, yes, I'm very excited to be having you as my co-host for this evening. Look, we'll be kind. If Scotty wants to come groveling back, we might let him back by the end of the pod. Possibly he'll even join me for an interview a little bit later.

00:02:10Lyndell Murray: All right. He can have a test run and see how he goes, see if he can get his job back.

00:02:19Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, I think we should make him earn it, don't you? Why not? Yeah, good, good. I'm glad you're on the same page as me about this. Now, because I haven't had the benefit yet of asking where you've been to parkrun recently, Lyndell, where were you on Saturday? I was at home at Bunyaville. Awesome. I think we've spoken about Bunyaville a few times before, but it's nice to have you on the show to discuss it, being it's your home parkrun and all, and it's Nice and serendipitously, I also happen to be at my home parkrun. Shock, horror, that never happens. So, run us through what happened on Saturday morning.

00:03:07Lyndell Murray: Well, we rocked up to Bunyaville wondering whether it was going to rain, actually. It's been a bit of rainy weather up here in the Sunshine State recently. Um, I went with one of my friends, um, who I mentioned on the podcast a couple of weeks ago as being somebody that I'd introduced to parkrun. She's a relatively new parkrunner, but has already done parkruns in three different countries, including Australia. So I was pretty happy to, to, um, have her as my guest at Bunyaville and, um, awesome.

00:03:40Melissa Erbacher: When you say relatively new, like how, how many months are we talking? Um,

00:03:45Lyndell Murray: Oh, how many months? I'm going to say, let's say six months.

00:03:52Melissa Erbacher: Wow, that is really new when you consider an extra couple of countries as well.

00:03:57Lyndell Murray: Yeah. I mean, she's parkrunned with me before at Bunyaville, but she was not registered. And she was determined not to register because parkrun wasn't going to be her thing. But yes, I got her.

00:04:12Melissa Erbacher: Nice. I love the way you operate. And so she came and she's actually scanned in now at Bunyaville. So she can add that to her number of events that she's been to. Absolutely. And obviously wasn't scared off by it the first time.

00:04:28Lyndell Murray: No, well, I mean, I guess there's a story to that. She regularly runs at Nambour and Nambour is, you know, rumoured to be a little bit tougher than Bunyaville. So they're both pretty difficult in their own ways. So she probably felt pretty at home at Bunyaville, whereas other people don't warm as much to Bunyaville's trails and hills. I don't know.

00:04:50Melissa Erbacher: I think if you... are introduced to parkrun the very first instance on a course that's a little bit more challenging perhaps than than many of them are then probably that sets the bar high and everything after that gets to be a bit easy so it's not so daunting when you do go back to those courses maybe that's it

00:05:12Lyndell Murray: But you had a good morning? I had a terrific morning. And it did rain on us just a little bit, but not enough to, you know, drench us or make us too cold. So we had a lovely day and I got to catch up with a couple of my parkrun Bunyaville family.

00:05:28Melissa Erbacher: So that was lovely as well. Awesome.

00:05:31Lyndell Murray: How about you, Mel?

00:05:33Melissa Erbacher: Well, I was going to say, Lyndell, you guys did well to not get too wet or soaked because – Yes, like you, we were sort of watching the clouds to begin with, I think, and wondering how wet we might end up getting. Being right on the coast, the weather can turn very quickly because we had some quite windy conditions to start with and obviously wind leads to clouds being blown in without a lot of warning. So we have two spots where we set up at Kawana. And one of them is the fine weather option and the other one is the wet weather option. And so we opted this week for the wet weather option, which has just a bit more shelter for the scanners and things like that. However, you know, the normal finish line volunteers, they're completely out there and exposed. Fortunately, they bought raincoats because, as it turned out, despite the fact that for a very long time I have been skiting that I – when I run direct – There is no rain. I've been Run Director the last two weeks, three weeks now, actually. And of the last two weeks, it has rained both times.

00:06:49Lyndell Murray: So, yes.

00:06:51Melissa Erbacher: And this week was not the exception, of course. But it didn't start raining until, oh, maybe we were about… 25 minutes into the event. So the runners were out there, the parkrunners were out on the course. I was at the finish line. I was volunteering. Emmett was in a carrier. So I was wearing him. He slept all the way through the whole event, fortunately. He didn't sleep all the way through the event the week before and he needed a feed. But he timed his feed really well because he timed it with just after we finished started the participants and then I managed to feed him before the first runners got back. So he had a really good time in there. But yeah, no, he slept all the way through this week. And then I don't know, I must have just had really good time and I didn't feel a change in the air or anything like that. But I walked over to check on the Barcode Scanners. I left the guys at the finish line to make sure everything was going all right with the Barcode Scanners. And literally, like within 10 seconds of me getting under the cover, the rain just poured down like a monsoon. And then it came sideways because the wind picked up as well. And I couldn't believe it. I looked over at the finish line and the guys were getting drenched. And I thought, wow, I didn't even see that coming. I managed to get undercover with Emmett before we got drenched. But I did because the little carriers got like a, waterproof thing. I put the waterproof thing over his head and then dashed over to my car to get some umbrellas to take to the finish line for the guys. But they didn't want them. They were all, you know, being manly men. And, you know, they had their raincoats on. No, no, we're all good. We're all good. Ironically enough, the wind, we had had a wind gust earlier and it had blown a whole bunch of the tokens at the finish line, in a big mess on the floor so we had a couple of volunteers scrambling to try and get them back in order I said don't worry about those ones just start at like number 200 which are still all back on their hook and at least they'll all be in order and we can sort it out later but no they were determined and they managed to get them all sorted again before the um parkrunners started coming over the finish line. So they did a good job, especially because we had two fast parkrunners this week under 16 minutes. And we don't get a lot of those at Kawana. So I was very impressed. It's a bit of a hill at Kawana. Yeah. Well, tell that to Scotty. He doesn't believe me. But I think there's a bit of a hill as well. Certainly there's an incline leading up to the lighthouse. So, yeah. Yes. These guys did a good job.

00:09:37Lyndell Murray: It goes for a while, so it's not the fastest parkrun course I wouldn't have thought.

00:09:42Melissa Erbacher: No, with hence not receiving a lot of sub-16 minute times. But yeah, so it was a bit of a wet and woolly one. Had to wash all the flags and the volunteer vest and let everything dry out when we got home afterwards.

00:09:58Lyndell Murray: But yeah, it was a good morning. Nonetheless, we had lots of adventurers.

00:10:01Melissa Erbacher: We had a whole bunch up from Victoria. Yeah. I did sort of welcome them to the Sunshine Coast in the pre-event brief. In the pouring rain. Yes, with a little bit of a note of sarcasm and irony in my voice, which got a laugh. But yeah, it was still a good morning. Despite the wet weather, I think everyone had a great time.

00:10:12[laughter]

00:10:28Lyndell Murray: And some stellar volunteers. And a shout out to Emmett for timing himself. He must be a definite parkrun adventurer in the making if he can, you know, manage to negotiate his life around parkrun.

00:10:43Melissa Erbacher: He's on a winner. Exactly. And you know what? He proved it again this week by waiting until after the event, to unleash a Poonami on me that went all the way through to the carrier and all the way up the back of his clothes. And, but he kept it right until the end and he just started squirming while I was packing up. And then, so I went to open the carrier to get him out and Adam said, Oh, stop, stop. There's poo everywhere. I was like, Oh, great. So yes, that was, that was, he, he has got his timing down really well. I, Look forward to see what happens this week.

00:11:22Lyndell Murray: Indeed. Well, keep us up to date, Mel.

00:11:25Melissa Erbacher: Oh, yeah. I'm sure everybody's super interested in Emmett's bowel movements. This is what the podcast will become.

00:11:32Lyndell Murray: The adventures. Well, they are interested. We talk every week about people who, you know, revolve their life around parkrun. Emmett's just a different kind of example of that.

00:11:44Melissa Erbacher: Yes. Well, he can't participate in the traditional sense yet, so this is how he makes his contributions. Wesley, on the other hand, had a great time with his dad. We had the good foresight and sense to go and buy, finally, after two years, one of those plastic pram covers for because I thought, you know what, I reckon it's going to be wet tomorrow. And we've been those terrible parents who just let their child get wet in the pram all this time. Not that there's been that many wet parkruns over the two years, but finally we went and bought a plastic pram cover so he stayed nice and snuggly and warm and dry, which is what you want. That is a win for Wes. Sometimes I wish they made those sorts of things for big people.

00:12:33Lyndell Murray: Oh, you and me both, Mel. Kids get all the good stuff.

00:12:37Melissa Erbacher: They do. So you didn't get wet, but did it fill up the creeks and things like that? Were there water crossings at Bunyaville as a result of all the wet weather we've had? Was it a bit muddier than usual?

00:12:48Lyndell Murray: It was not muddy so much. There was a bit of slippage on the clay sections. But what often happens on trails after just a little bit of rain, it actually sticks a bit better and it's a bit more tacky. We've had the opposite lately, up at Bunyaville where it's been really dry for so long and it gets really skiddy because nothing sticks together.

00:13:13Melissa Erbacher: And because it's all dust and loose.

00:13:16Lyndell Murray: It's all dusty and shaly and loose and stuff. It gets really, really slippery. So there wasn't that slipperiness, which was nice. And there was water in the creek, although not enough to have to get your feet wet. You could have got your feet wet, but you didn't have to get your feet wet. And it's always great. The park dogs at Bunyaville come back and their little chests are all wet and muddy.

00:13:40Melissa Erbacher: Because they've been lying down or because they've run through really fast? Yeah.

00:13:44Lyndell Murray: Because they just run through and that's where their bellies are in the water from the creek, you know, because they're on their four little legs. So they all come back with wet, muddy tummies and they just love it.

00:13:56Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's a nice cooling mechanism for them, I imagine.

00:14:00Lyndell Murray: Yeah, I guess it is.

00:14:02Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:14:04Melissa Erbacher: Excellent. Well, I'm glad to hear you had a great weekend, Lyndell.

00:14:10Lyndell Murray: And likewise with you, Mel.

Interview Tim Oberg — CEO, parkrun Australia

00:14:20Melissa Erbacher: The next person we have on the pod, and it's been a little while, but we have an international guest. I'm very excited. He's coming to us all the way from the UK. You may recognise the voice. It's Mr. Tim Oberg.

00:14:35Tim Oberg: Hi Mel, hi Scotty, great to be here and I'm sitting in the Premier Inn in Leeds in Yorkshire and it's a thrill to be here and so great to speak to you Mel. We haven't had much communication since you had little Emmett so awesome to hear you back and awesome to hear your voice.

00:14:52Melissa Erbacher: Thanks very much Tim. Now we've set you up in the Leeds branch of the parkrun adventurers, what do you call it, recording booth. So what's the weather like in Leeds today?

00:15:04Tim Oberg: The weather, so I've already been out for a run this morning. The weather was lovely. It's gone a bit grey, but I've been here in the UK since Wednesday last week, and the weather has been stunning. I've got to say, it's, you know, I lived here for 10 years, and so I know how much blue sky means to people over here. And it has been absolutely lovely. I feel like I'm being a bit spoiled. So yeah, it looks a little bit grey today, but yeah, overall, it's been wonderful.

00:15:31Scott Trickett: So that's great for you, Tim, but I've been going through a fair bit of FOMO seeing you over in the UK for the UK conference. You went this year, which is fantastic. So I think it's time you gave us an update on, let's start with your highlight. Let's start at the top. What was your highlight? What was your highlight takeaway from attending the UK conference?

00:15:54Tim Oberg: Yeah, Scott, it's been fantastic. This is the seventh parkrun UK Ambassadors Conference. And as you suggested or alluded to, it's my first one. We used to have what was called the Country Manager Conference every year. So 2014, I came over here. We had that conference in London. 2015, we had it in Cape Town in South Africa. In 2016, it was in Cork in Ireland. So I've had a few years off in terms of coming over here to Europe for a conference. So yeah, fantastic to be back. It started on Friday. So we were at the Warwick University, which is actually in Coventry in the Midlands, so not far from Birmingham, or Birmingham as they say. And look, it was three days of lots of fantastic presentations, lots of networking, all the sort of the big names from parkrun are here or were there, as I'm sure you can imagine. But the highlight, and look at this, I think this is not just my highlight. I think this is going to be something that everybody who was in attendance will remember, I think probably forever, was on the Saturday evening, the final session of the day, it didn't have a title. It was a bit of a mystery session. And we sat down in the hall. There was about 300 of us in the room. So it's a big conference. And we sat down in the hall and the MC, Vassos Alexander, who's actually quite a big name in the media over here, he was the MC, he started talking about the video series that parkrun did in conjunction with Sky Games, television uh called Jessica Ennis-Hill's parkrun Heroes uh and they said we were going to watch one of those episodes and I thought that was great because I haven't watched them all so I'm getting a bit excited we're going to watch this this uh parkrun video um and it started showing a video that was about the ugandan crew now the ugandan crew are uh a community of about 50 Ugandans who attend their local parkrun, which is just near Elephant and Castle in South London. And so this video comes on and it starts playing and I'm getting, you know, I'm getting comfortable and thinking this is great. Then all of a sudden the video stops And the 50 Ugandans in full like tribal or traditional attire come dancing into the room with their drums and their singing and other instruments. And it was amazing. They danced around the room for probably 15 minutes. All over the room, all different songs and different beats and everyone's up dancing. People are on the chairs and screaming and carrying on. And it was really interesting. I was seated quite close to Paul Sinton-Hewitt. And Paul's originally from Zimbabwe. He grew up in South Africa. And at the time he lived in Africa, there was a lot of racial tension and issues and For him to see 50 Ugandans come dancing into a room of an initiative that he's created, he was overcome. You could see it in his eyes and on his face. I've seen Paul be emotional a lot. He does get emotional talking about parkrun, but I've never seen him like that. And I spoke to him afterwards and, you know, he confirmed that to me. He was just saying, yeah, it was really, really something else. And for a guy who has, I think, unbelievable experiences a lot these days in his life when he meets people and talks about parkrun, I think that was right up there. So these Ugandans were dancing around the room and then they ended up up on the stage and probably about 15 of them took their turn to just tell their parkrun story. And everyone was unique. It was... I mean, it was really genuinely emotional. Most of them were living in London because they fled Uganda because of war and political conflicts and so on. And many of them told stories of being extremely lonely and unhealthy, and that finding parkrun had brought them together as a community and changed their health and just improved their lives in London. And yeah, it was amazing. It really was incredible. And as I say, I will remember it for the rest of my life. It was a real highlight.

00:20:23Melissa Erbacher: Sounds like a really special experience. Tim, Scotty mentioned that he's had FOMO, which everyone knows is fear of missing out. Now, I want you to give us the ROMO, the reality of missing out. You mentioned just briefly that there were some big names from the running in the parkrun world. Can you give us some name dropping?

00:20:45Tim Oberg: Yeah, of course. Well, from a parkrun perspective, any time you're in a room with Paul Sinton-Hewitt is an honour. And, you know, I've known Paul since 2010 when I first met him in Costa Coffee in Wimbledon Village, which I actually, just out of interest, I went back to Wimbledon Village to have a walk around. You know, the tennis was on. And I thought, I'll go and have a seat. I'll go sit down in Costa Coffee where I first met Paul just to reminisce. And it's closed. I couldn't believe it. So a little piece of my parkrun history has gone there. But, look, you know, being with Paul, talking with Paul, and I actually – I did parkrun with Paul on Saturday morning at Kingsbury Water parkrun. Myself and Paul and Tom Williams ran around together and – You know, doing a parkrun with Paul is quite an experience because everybody who sees him, you know, loses it basically. And, you know, we're running along and we'll run past somebody and then they'll tap the person next to them going, oh my God, that's Paul Sinton-Hewitt. So it was really cool. So obviously Paul was there and he's spoken on a number of occasions and was just fantastic. But I guess outside of the immediate parkrun UK world and more in terms of looking at famous people, I guess, if you want to say that, Chrissie Wellington, who's our Global Head of Health and Wellbeing, was there and spoke really well. Now, Chrissie, David Loader, who I'm travelling with, who is obviously one of our staff members here in Australia, David's a fanatical triathlete, and he said meeting Chrissie and he actually went for a run with Chrissie on Saturday morning was one of the real highlights of his life, he actually said. Chrissie's a multiple Ironman athlete, champion and just one of the real legends of Ironman distance triathlon. So Chrissie was there. It was the first time I met Chrissie and it was great to meet her. We had Dave Moorcroft there. Dave is the chair of the parkrun UK board and Dave is a former 5,000 metre track world record holder and I believe he is the last white man to hold the record. I think that's the story. I think pretty much since the early 80s, it's, you know, all the extremely fast Africans and so on have held that record. So Dave's a fantastic guy. I've known him for a number of years. The head of parkrun South Africa, Bruce Fordyce, who many, many listeners will know Bruce. And, of course, Bruce was there. Bruce is a nine times comrades champion. And then a lady who I was less familiar with, Jo Pavey. Jo is a... British or English 10,000 metre runner. What's incredible about Jo is she's been to the last five Olympic Games, which is just unbelievable. Her first Olympics was in Sydney and I was thinking back, you know, I was a volunteer in Sydney and here's Jo who's been running um you know olympia elite level distance running for that period of time since the Sydney Olympics so uh and she's I think she's 45 now and she's you know she said she's going to try and make Tokyo you know she's she's going for us you know going for a six so so certainly the uh the the brits in the room were very excited about Joe as I said I knew less about her but um the more I found out the more I'm like wow this lady is is absolutely incredible so um Yeah, it was a bit of a who's who. It was really, really fun.

00:24:10Scott Trickett: That's great to hear. I've seen some of the photos and I've seen you sporting a nice raspberry number at parkrun on the weekend. I don't want to hear about the parkrun just yet. I want to hear about Contra. I know that was on the agenda and you were wearing a top. Yeah, it was. Do you want to give us some background there? Yeah, absolutely, mate.

00:24:30Tim Oberg: And look, Contra, we've had a little bit of visibility of the Contra brand in Australia through our parkrun communications and so on, but it was a real focus at the conference, talking about it and then showing it. So basically Contra is a new running brand that has been created by Paul Sinton-Hewitt. With the parkrun team and with a designer called Tim Soar. Tim is a fashion designer. He's actually got his own boutique running brand called SOAR Running, S-O-A-R Running. And yeah, it started off as somewhat of a passion, project for Paul, which was in terms of designing accessible running gear, which essentially means it's gear that'll fit the common person as opposed to, you know, running gear that is designed to fit sports models and athletes. And we had a session at the conference on Contra where Paul was on the stage, Tim Soar was on the stage, and also Lady Dawn Nisbet. Now, Dawn's pretty well known in parkrun UK because there's a famous photo of her. I'm told it's the most liked and shared photo in the history of parkrun, actually. which is her crossing the finish line. Dawn's a larger lady and she's crossing the finish line looking absolutely ecstatic. But, you know, what you do notice when you see the photo, and I'm sure Scotty and Mel, you'll be able to share this photo on the website, sorry, on the Facebook page, is she's in a sort of a baggy T-shirt and whatnot. And, you know, Dawn was on the stage and she was talking about the fact that she actually just couldn't find running gear that fitted her. And it was a really... almost shaming experience. You know, she would go into a running store and try and get a running shirt that was, you know, 4XL or something like that. And they would, you know, they would just look at her and the look of pity and they just wouldn't have anything that would fit her. And, you know, she would leave really you know, upset and whatnot. So when Tim Soar and Paul were designing Contra, they wanted to get a range of models who would, you know, be able to be representative of the range of people who do parkrun and who exercise. And so Dawn was one of these models. And it was just brilliant. It was so great to hear the Contra story and that essentially we are all All of the profits from Contra go back to parkrun. In fact, 60,000 pounds have already been donated by Contra to parkrun. And, you know, it's genuinely... Contra generally has the opportunity to revolutionise how we fund parkrun and to just continue to ensure parkrun is sustainable into the future. So when we attended Kingsbury Water parkrun on Saturday morning, there was a Contra Roadshow, which essentially meant you could try on Contra gear and run in it. And so I did that. I tried on a colour that they call Raspberry. Again, you might be able to share one of the photos, Scotty and Mel on Facebook. But it was a lovely raspberry running t-shirt. Obviously, being a Queenslander, I do most of my running in singlets. And I'm sure there will be singlets on the way at some point. But I ran in a t-shirt and it really was, it was genuinely very comfortable to wear. I know, Scotty, you're a big fan. You wear your Contras all the time. And I can see why it was really good.

00:27:58Melissa Erbacher: Sounds awesome. Now, you mentioned you got a new parkrun in on Saturday. And of course, we're all about the parkrun adventures. Have you had many opportunities apart from parkrun as well? Well, I want to hear about the course too, but to do some freedom runs and check out some other places?

00:28:13Tim Oberg: Yeah, I definitely had, Mel. On the first night, so I arrived on the Wednesday, it was, and then we were staying in Twickenham, which is just down the road from Bushy Park. So I was trying to line up a Freedom Run with Paul, with PSH, and I sent him a message and unfortunately he didn't get the message until the following day. But regardless, myself and David Loder were made our way to Bushy Park on on the Thursday morning I think it was and um we did a freedom run there in bushy and it's only the second time I've actually been to bushy I've I've run it once before on an actual parkrun day and that was with Paul um so we yes and it's a bit of a tricky course to to actually do as a freedom run so I had that I had the map out the whole time and made sure I got it right and I saw on my Strava my Strava map afterwards that we pretty much which was good but um yeah David got a real thrill being at bushy for the first time and I mean as as did I've been there for the second time so we yeah we did bushy on uh on the first day um Then the parkrun itself was the Kingsbury Water parkrun, which was – it was about – it was probably about 40 minutes from where we were at University of Warwick. So out we went there. The highlight of the trip out to – Kingsbury Water was where we drove past Tom Williams Way on the way. So we stopped the car and Tom Williams had a photo at Tom Williams Way, which was pretty funny. But, yeah, the parkrun itself, it was big. It was – I think it was about 700 participants and obviously 300 ambassadors. So that definitely bumped the numbers up. But it was lovely. It was, you know, it was quintessentially English. So – You know, parkrun courses have a certain feel to them and, you know, this one we were running through, you know, on sort of paths through forests around Lakes and whatnot. It was really lovely. And as I say, running with Paul and Tom was great fun. Yeah. The day before that, actually, I forgot one. On the Thursday night, I stayed out in the countryside with Russ Jeffries. A lot of listeners will know Russ. Russ and Jess Jeffries were the founding Event Directors of Ginninderra parkrun in Canberra. So they're the... the forefathers of Canberra parkruns and the ACT and Russ is our head of comms at parkrun Global. So I stayed out with them in their little village, which was about 90 minutes outside of London. And I went for a run with Jess on the Friday morning. And, you know, they were like, we're running down these cobbled lanes and there's deers running through the fields and rabbits and, you know, squirrels and everything. It was just brilliant. So that was my second run. Then we had the parkrun on the Saturday. And then on the Sunday, there were various options for running and I perhaps foolishly decided to go with the long run slash fast runners group, which was Chrissie Wellington and co., And I ended up knocking out 14K. It's been a while since I've done 14K. But we ran from the University of Warwick to a place called Kenilworth Castle and back. And again, you know, we were talking about quintessentially British experiences. You know, there's nothing quite like running to a castle and running around a castle to remind yourself that you're not in Australia anymore. So I had a great run there. And then... And then again this morning, got up in Leeds now, and David Loder and I ran on the Aire Valley Towpath, which is this beautiful sort of canal path that runs all through Leeds. And we just bashed out a cheeky 5K, cheeky little parkrun distance wake-up run this morning. And the problem I have with that is that David is an elite or sub-elite runner. He's a 55-year-old sub-18-minute runner, runner and um here's me trying to keep up with him I think we were doing uh four tens or something along the way for some of it and I said to him I'm like mate you're killing me here but uh anyway we got through it and um and it was brilliant so plan is uh tomorrow I'm gonna have a rest day no running tomorrow uh but then we're gonna go do a freedom run around Woodhouse Moor parkrun uh which is about um I know probably about 15 minutes from where we are now uh Woodhouse Moor was originally called Leeds University Time Trial it was the the first parkrun or they were time trials as they were called in the early days it was the first parkrun outside of London and it was set up by Tom Williams so we're going to go do a freedom run there on Wednesday which which would be great and then uh I'm back forward bell and invite her along that's her home parkrun Is it just? Okay, maybe you can connect me. I don't know Nicola, so maybe we can make that happen. I know of Nicola, but I don't know her. And then on Saturday we're off to – well, Friday we're off to Stockholm and we're going to be doing the Haga parkrun in Stockholm in Sweden, on Saturday, which is going to be brilliant. I'm really, really looking forward to that. The Obergs are originally from Sweden. My great-grandfather was Swedish. So I'm looking forward to going and connecting with my Viking roots.

00:33:34Scott Trickett: Tim, my FOMO was rising and rising as you went through that. But then once you mentioned the four-minute Ks with David, it subdued a bit. But then Haga Haga parkrun on Saturday sounds awesome. I know you're going to have a good time. I just want to feed my ego before we let you go. I look at the numbers every week. I know people in the UK are downloading the podcast. Did you meet anyone? Did anyone come up and say, where's Scotty? Where's Mel?

00:34:01Tim Oberg: Well, look, I had a lot of people say, where's Scotty? Because obviously you were at the conference last year, mate. And so a lot of people were wondering who I was and where you were. No, but look, in all honesty, and I'm not just doing this to butter you both up, I had a number of people come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed the parkrun adventurers and to say hi to Scotty and Mel. And they'd heard me on the podcast before, so people only know me because I've been on your podcast, which is great. But, you know, it's fantastic, guys. And I say this every time I come on the podcast. You do such a great job. And, you know, podcasts being what they are, they are truly global. It's, you know, we might be both sitting in Australia, but, you know, you have influence on the global parkrun community. So I would like to give a shout out to all the parkrun UK ambassadors who came up and made me feel welcome. And, you know, wanted to have a bit of a banter about the podcast and give all my regards and apologies. I can't remember all of your names. There was so many. But, yeah, thank you to those who are listening who did come up to me and, as I say, made me feel welcome. So thank you very much.

00:35:10Melissa Erbacher: Scotty and I would like to thank all those people who listen over in the UK as well. It's always lovely to have you guys on board with us. And Tim, we would love to thank you once again for joining us. It's been awesome hearing about the UK conference and all the fun you've been having over there, shenanigans on the running field and all.

00:35:29Tim Oberg: It's all, it's strictly work though, Mel. You've got to remember everything I'm talking about here is work related. It's all work related. There's no fun to be had. Just all work.

00:35:40Melissa Erbacher: Absolutely. And I'm sure I don't, I'm not alone when I say there's a lot of people who are impressed by the kind of work related things you have to do when you're working.

00:35:53Tim Oberg: Brilliant.

00:35:53Melissa Erbacher: So thank you. Keep up the good work, Tim.

00:35:56Tim Oberg: I will keep working hard for the parkrun community and I look forward to catching up with you guys when I'm back.

Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew

Roving report Mark Scarborough — Main Beach parkrun

00:36:14Mark Scarborough: Hello parkrun adventurers, this is Mark reporting in and not quite a parkrun but it's a pop-up parkrun on the Friday before the Gold Coast Marathon here at Main Beach. It's the first time for me to be here at Main Beach parkrun and I thought we'd come along to this special pop-up event seeing as they've got their event cancelled for tomorrow because of the Gold Coast Marathon. So we're going to have a chat to see who else is here today.

00:36:39Adrian Dodson-Shaw: So the Indigenous Marathon Project's been going since... 2010, where Rob took over the first four boys. Then there was a documentary about it. So since then, we're in our 10th year and we've taken 86 graduates to the New York City start line, also Boston and Tokyo, from all across Australia so I'm one of the graduates of the program so I've done it in 2014 and I've come through the path of that now I'm the head coach of the program since 2016 Rob sends his apologies he's a very busy man he couldn't make it this year and I know he wanted to get down and obviously have a chat to you all but he wanted to wish all you guys luck especially those who are running the marathon which is pretty cool. So some of these guys are from everywhere. They'll introduce themselves pretty quickly where they're from. So every year we select six men and six women from all across Australia, 18 to 30, and we train them up in six months to run the New York City Marathon. So that's the goal. Some of them have run before in their life, some of them haven't. But that's not the beauty of the project. The project's not a running program as such. We're about building strong young leaders and empowering their own communities and where they're from and inspiring others, which is pretty cool. And I think that's what we need, especially in Indigenous Australia, for us to all step up. So using the marathon and having the support of Rob, which we're pretty fortunate to have because he's a pretty passionate man, and supporting us 110%. So taking us on... taken us all on this journey to run our first marathon and Gold Coast every year we've run the half marathon so these guys it's their second camp so throughout the year we have four camps so the first camp we held six weeks ago in Canberra where they all came down and met each other for the first time and then now they're going to be running their first half marathon which is pretty cool. So I think they're a bit nervous but they're all supportive of one another and the beauty of the project is that we're growing. This year we had 180 applicants and every year we only can take 12 so it's really good to see that since Rob's come on board how big marathon running and endurance running has taken off within the indigenous spectrum and it's really cool to see that not only the IMP guys but we've got a big community of Deadly Runners now all set up throughout Australia. And it's just become this blossoming thing where everyone can take part, be active and live a healthy and active lifestyle. So I won't talk for too much. Sorry, I'm a bit croaky and thing. I'm a bit crook. So it's not ideal coming here in the windy conditions. Come up from Canberra. But I just introduced myself quickly. So I said Adrian Dodson-Shaw. So I'm a Broome man. I'm Yawuru. So I moved from Sunny Broome down to Canberra. Rob Brame lost me. But I've stepped up outside my comfort zone, so I'm really great for that. I've got connection to Western Australia and also the Northern Territory where my mum is from Alice Springs. So it's all of us standing up together to try and make small changes within ourselves to the bigger picture with us as Indigenous Australians. So I'll just get all of them to step forward just to quickly introduce who they are, where they're from, and why they're actually doing this thing, the marathon, because it's pretty crazy.

00:40:03Reece: Kiefer?

00:40:08Shane Cook: Here you go, my name's Kiefer Yu, I'm from Broome also, Yarraban.

00:40:11Travis Naden: The reason I signed up is just to work with disadvantaged youth in the justice system and just trying to be a better role model for them.

00:40:22Narendra Dempsey: Hi everyone, I'm Narendra Dempsey, so I'm Kalkadoon woman from Mount Isa, currently living in Toowoomba. I signed up, I've got three beautiful little girls that I like to be a good role model for and yeah, I'm part-time at Commonwealth Bank.

00:40:37Shane Cook: Hello, my name is Shane Cook. I'm 27 years old. I was born on Kaurna Country in South Australia, Adelaide. My family is originally from Cherbourg in Queensland. I'm an artist. I also do, I'm a cultural mentor, dance, and also work in the youth justice system.

00:40:57Kate Axton: My name's Kate Axton. I'm an Arrernte woman from Alice Springs. I am a trained teacher, but I'm currently working on building frameworks around effective engagement in schools for Indigenous families and students. I signed up and put my name in the hat basically because I want to be the change... I want to be the change that I want to see in young Indigenous kids and I want to be a good role model for all my younger cousins and all the foster kids that I take on.

00:41:36Jordan Armstrong: Hi everyone. My name is Jordan Armstrong. I'm from Alice Springs. I'm a Western Islander man. The things I love doing back at home is helping kids to get to school and trying to get their attendance high getting to school and the reason why I wanted to be part of this program is to represent my community and also my friends and family and share my stories and yeah just represent that.

00:42:12Jordan Merritt: Hi, my name is Jordan Merritt. I'm a Yamaji woman from Mullewa, Western Australia. I'm currently living in Wickham, Western Australia. I'm an education officer at the Roebourne District High School and I'm also a mentor with the Wirrpanda Foundation in Wickham. I'm very passionate about working with children and passionate about... teaching them while they're young about the importance of our health.

00:42:49Tyrone Bean: Hi everyone, my name's Tyrone Bean. I'm a proud Kabi Kabi, Waka Waka, Bindal and Quandamooka man. I actually grew up on Kabi Kabi Country, so Sunshine Coast. I also acknowledge my father's side of the family, who's non-Aboriginal. He's English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh. But I never grew up on that country, so I don't have that ties to that country, so I don't really claim as much as what I do in the Indigenous space and Indigenous context. I'm currently a school teacher. I'm teaching at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne and I also run the Indigenous program at Trinity Grammar. The reason why that I want to be a part of it because I, just like everyone else, you want to be the change, you want to be the one to make a difference. And just so my young fellas at school there, they don't have very positive male role models. So being someone like that, that they see every day, that they can get out and use running as a tool for change.

00:43:41Unidentified speaker: Hi everyone, my name's Em Broderick. I'm a Noongar woman from Perth, WA. I'm a teacher and Indigenous program coordinator at CEDA in WA as well. The reason that I wanted to do it was to just be that change, be the ripple effect and also show the kids that I work with that if I can do something like this, then they can too. Thanks.

00:44:03Tanisha Atkinson: Hello, everyone. My name is Tanisha Atkinson. I'm a Yorta Yorta Bangarang woman from Shepparton in Victoria, but I live in Brisbane. I currently work for the Brisbane Broncos as a workshop facilitator in their Indigenous Beyond the Broncos community programs. And I've joined the IMP squad this year because I want to be the change that I want to see and empower and inspire my family and community.

00:44:29Sienna Cotullo: Hello everyone, I'm Sienna Cotullo. I'm a proud Narungga woman from South Australia, born and raised in Melbourne though. I am an Aboriginal health promotion officer back in Melbourne. I chose to do IMP because I wanted to be that positive role model but also represent those strong mob out there that are actually doing really good things in community.

00:44:52Neil Sabatino: Hello, my name is Neil Sabatino. I'm an island man from Torres Strait. The reason why I joined IMP is to be a positive role model for all the indigenous kids living in community. So I moved away from home and I'm starting to become a teacher because I have a passion for indigenous education. So I think it's important for those kids to move out of their comfort zone and take on their goals and their dreams.

00:45:19Travis Naden: Good afternoon everyone, my name is Travis Naden, I'm from Canberra, I'm a wagering man. Took me seven years to try out and get into this program. I want to use this as a stepping stone to be a better person and better the people around me and yeah, thanks for having us today.

00:45:41Jess Bartholomew: Hi everyone, I'm Jess Bartholomew. I'm a Bigambul woman from Inglewood and I'm a graduate of this program. So I went through IMP last year and was fortunate enough to make it to the final team to go over to New York. So yeah, I run New York Marathon in six months, from no running for 10 years since I left school to, yeah, picking up my running and completing my first ever marathon. So I joined IMP to show my kids and my community, my family, you know, that we can do great things through running and, yeah, thank you.

00:46:23Harriet David: Hello, good afternoon everyone. My name is Harriet David. I was born and raised in Cairns. I am a Torres Strait Aboriginal woman from Coen and Yam Island. Thank you for coming today. I successfully completed the program, the Indigenous Marathon Project in 2015. As a single mother of two, the project helped me overcome mental illness as well as physical challenges that we face on a day-to-day basis. In my family, as an Aboriginal Torres Strait Island woman, diabetes runs very strong through our generations. it was my chance to be able to break that cycle. And I've gone on to complete the New York marathon as well as the Paris marathon. And now in training to help accompany my father who will compete his first marathon this year, hopefully in Canada for his 50th birthday. So that's my story.

00:47:33Adrian Dodson-Shaw: Yeah, so as you can see, we've got a spread of, you know, a lot of the guys and they're just representative of the next 12 that we're going to, you know, take through to New York. But also, you know, like without the support, we've got other graduates here and also, you know, Deadly Runners family and also we've got staff that work tirelessly with us as well. So, you know, thanks for having us. Like we love coming down here every year and getting to share stories our story and our journey and also I want to personally wish all you guys the best and for you guys that are running the marathon, I've run four so I'm pretty, from someone that never thought I'd ever run one to running four, it's pretty crazy and that man Rob de Castella started something and it's been really positive and really great to have him around and wishes all the best.

00:48:16Mark Scarborough: So I'm now here with Reece and Sam, how are you Reece?

00:48:19Reece: Yeah pretty good thanks.

00:48:20Mark Scarborough: What brought you to Main Beach parkrun today?

00:48:22Reece: Down for the Gold Coast Marathon and since the Indigenous Marathon Project guys are turning up, it's a good chance to turn up, hear what they're doing for the next year and get a nice update from them and have a run with them.

00:48:35Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And have you run Main Beach before?

00:48:38Reece: Yeah, I've run an actual one once or twice and been here most Gold Coast Marathons to run with the Indigenous Marathon Project guys.

00:48:47Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And where's home parkrun?

00:48:48Reece: Rocks Riverside in Brisbane.

00:48:50Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And Sam, what brought you to Main Beach today?

00:48:52Sam: Same thing, Gold Coast Marathon. And these ones on the Friday, I'm normally here every year for the twilight one as part of the weekend. Nice little run and catch up with a heap of people that I haven't seen for a while.

00:49:05Mark Scarborough: And where's home parkrun for you?

00:49:07Sam: Logan River for me. Or I spend a lot of time at Paradise Point now, too, because of my partner.

00:49:17Mark Scarborough: And how many Gold Coast Marathon appearances?

00:49:20Sam: Me, this is the third or fourth, I think. And Reecey, I don't know how many Reece has done.

00:49:26Mark Scarborough: How many is it, Reece?

00:49:27Sam: Six for me.

00:49:29Mark Scarborough: Excellent. So pushing for a PB on Sunday?

00:49:31Reece: Yeah, hopefully. Don't like my chances, but I'm going to try.

00:49:35Mark Scarborough: All right, thanks for your time, guys.

00:49:37Reece: All right, thanks, guys.

00:49:39Mark Scarborough: All right, so we're here with some junior parkrunners. What brought you to Main Beach parkrun today?

00:49:44Unidentified speaker: We're doing the Gold Coast Marathon tomorrow.

00:49:47Mark Scarborough: What distance are you going to be running tomorrow?

00:49:49Unidentified speaker: The 10.

00:49:49Mark Scarborough: 10, well done. Is this going to be your first 10K event?

00:49:52Unidentified speaker: No, about my fifth maybe.

00:49:55Mark Scarborough: Well done. And where's home parkrun for you?

00:49:57Unidentified speaker: The Ponds in New South Wales.

00:49:59Mark Scarborough: New South Wales. All right, well, good luck to you. And you're doing 10K tomorrow as well?

00:50:05Unidentified speaker: No. No, what are you running tomorrow? Nothing. I just came for fun.

00:50:09Mark Scarborough: Excellent. Well, that's what parkrun's about, isn't it? Thanks for the chat. I'm now here with Bill and Jodie, who I actually spoke to back in January at Studley parkrun in Melbourne. How are you, Bill? I'm well, thank you. So back when we spoke at Studley, it was your sixth parkrun, and that was your sixth parkrun in a row. Now you're up to 27 parkruns.

00:50:27Bill: Yeah, 27 and 28 for Jodie, so we've been pretty consecutive back since then.

00:50:33Mark Scarborough: Well done. That's a huge effort to have that many runs in a row. Well done. I never thought I'd admit it, but we actually look forward to it every Saturday morning. It's crazy, isn't it, how the bug can get to you? And so what brought you to Main Beach parkrun today?

00:50:46Bill: Friends, to be honest. We had no plans on doing it today because of the Gold Coast Marathon tomorrow. We've been in preparation for that, but friends wanted to do it, so we thought we'd tag along and check it out. We're doing 10Ks tomorrow, which is two parkruns. Easy, just two parkruns in a row. That's it, two parkruns back to back without a break, without a seven-day break, but that's all right. We'll get there. I'm looking forward to it.

00:51:10Mark Scarborough: I'm here with a big group of parkrunners at Main Beach. You want to introduce yourself and where's your home parkrun?

00:51:15Unidentified speaker: My name's Sarah and I'm from Highlands in Victoria. My name's Rita. I'm also from Highlands in Victoria.

00:51:21Unidentified speaker: I'm Emma. I'm from Lismore in New South Wales.

00:51:23Matt: I'm Matt. I'm RD in Lismore as well.

00:51:25Mark Scarborough: Ah, Run Director. And how have you found Main Beach parkrun?

00:51:29Matt: Good course, yeah, nice. Great course. Is this your first time here? Very much, yeah, very first time for myself, and I will be back, mate. So, for a proper one.

00:51:37Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And you're a Run Director at Highlands as well?

00:51:39Unidentified speaker: And an Event Director. Oh, well done. Yeah, so ED and RD, and fellow RD here as well with Rita.

00:51:43Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And you're all taking part in the Gold Coast Marathon events? Yes.

00:51:47Unidentified speaker: Yes, we are. Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Rita and I are both walking tomorrow for the 5.7 and then we are deciding to run again for the full on Sunday.

00:51:54Mark Scarborough: Wow. Biting off the full. First full marathon or?

00:51:57Unidentified speaker: Second.

00:51:59Mark Scarborough: First time here at Gold Coast or?

00:52:00Unidentified speaker: Yes, yes. Second time here for me. I was here last year, did the half. Excellent.

00:52:04Mark Scarborough: Excellent. And any particular reason why you came down to Main Beach today? Was it just because parkrun or?

00:52:10Unidentified speaker: Yeah, just a bit of a warm-up, I think.

00:52:12Matt: Yeah, stretch your legs out and see what's going on here and meet a few people. It's all good.

00:52:17Mark Scarborough: All right, well, thank you very much and best of luck for your events on the weekend.

00:52:21Melissa Erbacher: Thanks.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:52:21Melissa Erbacher: Cheers. Looks like there are zero launches this week, Scotty.

00:52:24Scott Trickett: Hang on, Mel. Are we just going to gloss over the fine work of Mark Scarborough?

00:52:29Melissa Erbacher: Oh, well, not gloss over it, Scotty, no.

00:52:33Scott Trickett: But great report, Mark, from Main Beach Freedom Run, catching up with the IMP crew. But you were saying...

00:52:40Melissa Erbacher: I was saying that there are no launches this week.

00:52:45Scott Trickett: Good. Oh, look, the chemistry. We just slipped straight back into it.

00:52:49Melissa Erbacher: I have to admit, I was a little bit distracted. I had a little boy who coughed and shat at the same time. That wasn't me, people.

00:52:58Scott Trickett: That wasn't me. No, it wasn't Scotty this time. So, absolutely, we do have anniversaries this week.

00:53:08Melissa Erbacher: We do, and the first one's somewhere a little bit special, Scotty.

00:53:11Scott Trickett: Cormorant Bay in Queensland, I know. I've publicly stated that it's gone to the top of my wish list. I've been checking it out lately. It's got some cracking views and shots coming out of there. Also Dubbo, Gatton, Gawler, and maybe you were referring to Kennington Reservoir?

00:53:34Melissa Erbacher: I was, because it's the first time Kennington Reservoir have had an anniversary.

00:53:38Scott Trickett: Yes. Formerly Bendigo parkrun. They've had a name change.

00:53:43Melissa Erbacher: Do you know anything about, like, was that initiated from the event themselves or was that initiated from HQ, Scotty?

00:53:51Scott Trickett: It was, I think, the event team just sort of saying, this is where we are. Bendigo is a big town. There's definitely room for more parkruns. We need to... associate or be known for where the area we run around. So let's see if we can get our name changed. And it makes perfect sense to me. They literally run around Kennington Reservoir. So let's call it Kennington Reservoir parkrun.

00:54:13Melissa Erbacher: Cool. Well, there are still a few more as well as those. So we've also got Noosa and Phillip Island and Pittsworth and Wauchope.

00:54:21Scott Trickett: Yeah.

00:54:23Melissa Erbacher: Not going to mention which states those are all in because we're getting so many these days, we may as well just rattle off the list of names. Hey, Scotty?

00:54:29Scott Trickett: Yep, yep.

00:54:32Melissa Erbacher: Speaking of glossing.

00:54:33Scott Trickett: Yeah, well, I haven't been here. I like you. You started the podcast without me, which I can't wait to listen to and hear how it goes. But it's good to be back with you, Mel. I've loved having Lyndell, but I've missed you as well.

00:54:48Melissa Erbacher: Well, that's very politically correct of you. Thank you, Scotty, for finally deciding that it was time to have me allowed to come back to the pod. I appreciate that endorsement from you after four weeks away.

00:55:02Scott Trickett: I figured your regular commitment to parkrun was Was happening. You were going. I know you went on the weekend. You were Run Director. I was messaging you on Saturday morning, bugging you to find out what you were doing.

00:55:14Melissa Erbacher: Yeah. Well, you just couldn't wait for the Monday chat, could you?

00:55:17Scott Trickett: No, I couldn't. I had to know at 4 a.m.

00:55:19Melissa Erbacher: It's been too long.

00:55:21Scott Trickett: On Saturday morning. Was it 4 a.m.? I think I woke up and thought, who else will be up?

00:55:25Melissa Erbacher: No, no. It wasn't 4 a.m. Wasn't it?

00:55:27Scott Trickett: That was another day. No.

00:55:29Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, that was this morning. Oh, okay. No, on Saturday it was 5.30 in the morning, which isn't too early, but that's when I generally get up to go to parkrun because those of us in Queensland who start at 7 a.m. need to get started a little bit earlier than other states who don't. But yes, yes, my regular scheduled programming at parkrun recommenced a couple of weeks ago and, yeah.

00:55:59Scott Trickett: Okay.

00:56:00Melissa Erbacher: It's been good.

00:56:01Scott Trickett: Are we going to get back on track? Is this something that is imminent? Like, are we going to have Mel travelling, being a parkrun adventurer, or...?

00:56:12Melissa Erbacher: There has been conversations in our household about an adventure coming up this weekend, Scotty. I don't know whether or not I can commit to it yet because my physio doesn't want me actually doing any parkruns for six weeks. But the – Six weeks? You know, yeah. It's an event that I've already done, but Adam hasn't. So the opportunity is there for me to potentially volunteer or volunteer. So, yeah. Yeah. We'll continue the conversations and we'll see how that goes. And I'll report back to you next week.

00:56:46Scott Trickett: Can't wait.

00:56:48Melissa Erbacher: Yeah, but hey, you didn't actually share with me on Saturday where you were headed. And it might be because I didn't ask, but I am keen to know. So consider this me asking now. Where did you go last weekend?

00:57:01Scott Trickett: So this is our intro in the outro.

00:57:03Melissa Erbacher: Well, this is your intro. I've already done that.

00:57:05Scott Trickett: Well, Mel, I went back to Albert Park. Now, I carried on a bit last week about my P-index being eight, which is a fantastic achievement. But I've already started planning to get it to double figures. And so when the excuse – well, it's not an excuse. When the reason arose to adventure to Albert Park, I jumped at it. And it was a lovely morning around the lake. It wasn't windy. There was no wind whatsoever, which is one of the challenges at Albert. So you run up one side of the lake and you're pretty sheltered by some trees and undulating turf. So most times, 99 times out of 100, you're probably getting a tailwind up there, which you don't notice. And then you turn around and you get a full headwind on the exposed side of the lake. But that didn't happen on Saturday. So it was a really nice run.

00:57:54Melissa Erbacher: Did you guys get any rain?

00:57:56Scott Trickett: No, that was just you. It was beautiful down here in the Great State over the weekend.

00:58:02Melissa Erbacher: Right. But you had a good one. I did.

00:58:05Scott Trickett: But I'll tell you a funny story. There's a photo that's popped up on the socials of me on the Albert Park page. And...

00:58:14Melissa Erbacher: Please describe. I've been in a bit of a social media bubble.

00:58:17Scott Trickett: Well, they were really excited because they had a bit of a celebrity there on Saturday, a celebrity going by the name of Sam Wood, who is a bachelor for those who aren't up to date. But I'm telling you, Mel, there won't be many because he's very famous. No, he's very popular. People know who Sam Wood is. When I got there, there were people around him.

00:58:37[other]

00:58:37Melissa Erbacher: already that knew him so he's a bachelor oh he's sorry I just sneezed and I woke Emma up um he's I muted the sneeze and then I unmuted to ask the question and you got the cry I'm moving all this in that's great um the uh distraction No, he's a bachelor or he's the bachelor?

00:59:04Scott Trickett: He was the bachelor. He was on TV recently. Yeah, he was on recently a couple of years ago. So he was the bachelor. He's now got a program called 28 with Sam Wood. Look it up if you're interested. But my funny story is that when you're in a position to be on the bachelor, you've got a few things going for you. He's a very attractive man and I'm not the type, Mel. I don't know. You know me pretty well. I'm not the type to be intimidated by, you know, other men in particular. But Sam is a very good looker.

00:59:36Melissa Erbacher: With hair like yours, why would you be intimidated?

00:59:39Scott Trickett: Exactly. And we've talked – anyway, I'll keep it brief. But he's a very attractive man. He's a very big man. Like he's muscly and all that stuff. And so I relish the opportunity because I take a really good running photo, as we've discussed before. I really love it. Every photo I take at parkrun is just horrific. It's horrific. I just don't do it. We've talked about that before. I don't do the good running photo. So to my delight, it was great to have a photo shared of me at parkrun next to the Bachelor. And true to form, it was a horrific photo of me. But... I got a bit of air. So I'm sort of glossing over the photo of me and just focusing on the fact that I got air. And I look really happy.

01:00:21Melissa Erbacher: So did you run the whole course with Sam there? Yeah, pretty much.

01:00:25Scott Trickett: Pretty much. We caught up after a couple of hundred metres or a kilometre. We just chatted. So, you know, two celebrities, background celebrity myself and like real proper celebrity.

01:00:35Melissa Erbacher: I know. Was it awkward for him when you had all the adventurer groupies like flocking around you?

01:00:41Scott Trickett: Now you're just making fun of me, Mel.

01:00:43Melissa Erbacher: Not at all, Scotty. You get recognised a lot more than I do at parkruns, okay?

Sign-off

01:00:48Scott Trickett: No, I didn't have anyone come up to me on Saturday and want to talk podcast, damn the one week the one week where you're having a dry spell but let's see look if Sam embraces parkrun let's get him on we'll get him on as a future guest and have a chat about the time he ran with me I think that's a good idea but on that note Mel uh it's great to have you back we've had all the regulars back today lindell timmy joined us for a great wrap up and um I'm full of parkrun happiness. Let's leave it there and let's do it all again next week.

01:01:25Melissa Erbacher: I look forward to coming back for two weeks in a row, Scotty. I'm glad that you're not ready to put me back on hiatus.